AFP, Mumbai :
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi swept to power five years ago on a business-friendly manifesto that promised to shake up Asia’s third-largest economy and boost employment.
As Modi, 68, seeks a second term in India’s almost six-week mega-election beginning on Thursday, AFP looks at how he has delivered on his main economic pledges.
Young people voted for Modi in droves in 2014 after he said he would create 10 million jobs a year.
Many, however, have been left disappointed – and jobless.
A newspaper recently published what it called an official report buried by Modi’s government showing unemployment at its highest since the 1970s.
Last year a staggering 19 million people applied for 63,000 positions at Indian Railways.
The opposition has used unemployment as one of its main lines of attack in the campaign, with Congress chief Rahul Gandhi attacking Modi for creating a “national disaster”.
Analysts say that the economy has failed to expand at the rate required to employ the one million Indians who enter the workforce every month.
In 2014, Modi projected himself as an anti-corruption crusader who would eradicate graft and so-called “black money”.
While Modi has been widely credited with ending a culture of crony capitalism throughout government his overall record on corruption is mixed.
He has been lauded for toughening anti-corruption laws, including one outlawing “benami” property, where owners purchase real estate through third parties to hide money.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi swept to power five years ago on a business-friendly manifesto that promised to shake up Asia’s third-largest economy and boost employment.
As Modi, 68, seeks a second term in India’s almost six-week mega-election beginning on Thursday, AFP looks at how he has delivered on his main economic pledges.
Young people voted for Modi in droves in 2014 after he said he would create 10 million jobs a year.
Many, however, have been left disappointed – and jobless.
A newspaper recently published what it called an official report buried by Modi’s government showing unemployment at its highest since the 1970s.
Last year a staggering 19 million people applied for 63,000 positions at Indian Railways.
The opposition has used unemployment as one of its main lines of attack in the campaign, with Congress chief Rahul Gandhi attacking Modi for creating a “national disaster”.
Analysts say that the economy has failed to expand at the rate required to employ the one million Indians who enter the workforce every month.
In 2014, Modi projected himself as an anti-corruption crusader who would eradicate graft and so-called “black money”.
While Modi has been widely credited with ending a culture of crony capitalism throughout government his overall record on corruption is mixed.
He has been lauded for toughening anti-corruption laws, including one outlawing “benami” property, where owners purchase real estate through third parties to hide money.
